From Europe to Jesi

After nine months of volunteering here at Caritas Jesi, Louise's project has come to an end. However, she wanted to say goodbye to you: It's strange to think that it's already over. As I write these lines, I'm already on the Flixbus, but I find it hard to believe that in a few hours I'll be in France! If I had to sum up my experience here in one word, I would say: encounters. I've learned a lot in 9 months: speaking a new language, opening up more to others, learning how to cook pasta properly 😅...but none of this would have been possible without the people I've met. Whether it was the other volunteers, the beneficiaries of Caritas, the people who follow us on our ESC journey, and above all the friendships I made along the way! Thanks to you, I decided to extend my experience, I gained confidence in myself and, sitting on this bus, I'm already thinking about when I'll come back to see you! So thank you very much, everyone, for everything, and welcom...

Ciao! It's Louise and Emma. Today we would like to share a wonderful experience with you, which we have made last Saturday. But first, we need to go back in time a bit… About 4 months ago, I (Louise) was called for my "On Arrival Training" (if you're wondering what is the OAT, go see  our blog post on this topic ). There, I was lucky to meet other ESC volunteers who have the same coordinating organisation as us (Vicolocorto), and also live in the Marche region. I particularly bonded with Laura, a finnish girl who is doing her service at the Red Cross of Cingoli, and Madalena from Portugal, who is volunteering in Caritas Senigallia. After the training, we kept in touch and decided to see each other again... which we did. We visited the Frasassi caves, Ancona, and -more important for our story- at the end of August, we organised an ESC lunch at our appartment in Jesi, where we all cooked traditionnal dishes from our home countries. From that day, we had the idea to do s...

Ciao! My name is Emma and I joined Caritas Jesi three weeks ago as the new ESC volunteer. I have only recently gratuated from school in my home country, Austria. After having studied for years, I could not picture myself attending university right away, which is why I decided to take a gap year. I wanted to use it to improve my knowledge of the Italian language, as I had already studied it at school. However, finding something suitable, even after I had learned about the European Solidarity Corps, turned out to be rather challenging. I eventually came across Caritas Jesi and decided to send in my application, which turned out to be just the right decision. After having completed all the necessary steps before my departure, I finally arrived in Jesi three weeks ago. As you can see, I haven't been here for long, but I already feel like being a part of the diverse, committed and unbelievably welcoming team of Caritas Jesi. At the beginnig, I had this fear of feeling alone in a foreign...

Ciao! It's Louise. Today I would like to speak about the connection that exists between ESC and "Servizo civile" (SCU) volunteers. As an ESC volunteer, my experience is different from the SCU volunteers in several ways. For one, I am an international volunteer coming to Italy for six months, whereas the SCU volunteers are Italians staying in Caritas for one whole year. Second, the SCU volunteers work in just one service for a three-month period (Centro d'ascolto, cucina, emporio or reception). I, on the other hand, move between different areas of Caritas each day, giving me a wider variety of tasks and responsibilities. This also means it took me longer than them to adapt and become efficient, but after just a few weeks or months, I became more independent in every service, whereas they have to adapt to a new service every three months. I met the SCU volunteers of Caritas during my second week when they returned from their training. I had the chance to work alongside ...

Hello everyone! It's Louise. Today, I'd like to share with you two actions in which I recently participated. They taught me a lot, both on a human level and in terms of the concrete challenges involved in welcoming and supporting migrants in Italy. Welcoming migrants on their arrival at the port   Two weeks ago, I went with Marco D’Aurizio (President of Caritas Jesina) and other workers of Caritas Ancona to welcome a group of 276 migrants who had arrived on the Ocean's Viking (a boat that rescues migrants at sea) at Ancona’s port. We were there at 8am, under grey skies and a cold wind, ready to hand out breakfast: a bottle of water, an apple, a filled brioche, and tea for those who wanted it. The reception was very closely supervised by the police, which made the organisation very rigorous, but also a little tense. At first, we let people sit down, take time to eat and warm up. But soon, the police were pressing us to get the migrants onto the buses waiting nearby. So, we h...

 Hi! My name is Louise, I'm 26 years old, and I'm from France. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to go abroad to see what life is like elsewhere. Two years ago, in 2022, I graduated with a Master’s degree in Law, specialising in European Law. That’s how I first heard about the European Solidarity Corps (but only from an academic perspective, as we were studying several European programs). During my studies, I volunteered every summer with a French organisation that supports migrants in different aspects of their lives. The first Summer, I helped organise activities for children living in a refugee center. And the following years, I joined the legal advice service, where I assisted migrants with their administrative process to obtain or renew their residence permits. It was a truly rewarding experience that helped me grow personally. After graduation, I felt lost. I knew from my volunteering experience that I wanted a job that had a positive impact on society, but I wasn't ...

Ciao, Hola and Hi!  I’m Rio Rojas Mayorga, and I’ve been helping set up the new apartment for volunteers. Let me tell you about the process of organizing this future home for us! In case you didn’t know, ESC volunteers previously lived in an apartment within the Caritas enclosure. However, for various reasons, it was decided to move us to a new place in the city center. The person in charge of preparing this apartment was Fabiano, a 65-year-old volunteer. Since he had multiple apartments and projects to manage, progress on this specific one was quite slow. So, to give him a hand, I offered my time and enthusiasm to compensate for my lack of any real knowledge of construction or renovation!  The house had almost everything we needed, but the problem was that it was all disassembled. It took a couple of months of assembling furniture, deep cleaning every piece, and rearranging the house fittings over and over. For most of the process, the end felt so far away. We started first w...

Ciao, Hola and Hi!  I’m Río Rojas Mayorga and it's been 3 months since I'm an ESC volunteer here in Caritas Jesina. Let me update you briefly about my experience! The arrival and first week in Caritas was a mix of emotions between the excitement to start and the confusion of all the new people and information we were bombarded with. At first we didn't have a schedule and it was a little bit messy but, I'm glad I shared so much time with my project partner; it was nice having someone in the same situation. First month Once the schedule was set, we had to adjust not only to the work but also to the people we shared the time with. As all the services are done with local people, at first it was difficult the communication as I had no words in Italian, but I was gladly surprised to find out my will of talking and sharing was lovely appreciated and corresponded, I found out the language barrier was a challenge but i wasn’t fighting it alone.  My birthday arrived eventually an...

Ciao, Hola and Hi! I’m Río Rojas Mayorga, one of the two volunteers here at Caritas Jesi in October 2024. I’m from Madrid, Spain, and in this first blog, I will share my life before volunteering and how I discovered the ESC. The next one should be about my life here. I would like to start by providing some context about how I got to know the ESC by talking about my life in Majadahonda, Madrid. After the quarantine, my family and I moved from Aluche (in south-central Madrid) to Majadahonda (on the western outskirts) due to financial struggles, which was a significant change for us. The first year felt lonely for my sister and me. During that time, I began studying in the afternoons at the youth centre near my home, where I searched about local volunteering opportunities and eventually discovered international volunteering. However, I was still under 18 and thought I had to prioritise my formal studies. Then, in November 2022, I met someone who transformed my life; it all began with a si...